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Background: Undergraduate learning is a sensitive and challenging period for students and has been reported to result in high rates of psychological distress in them. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of psychological distress among undergraduate students at Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among a stratified sample of 500 undergraduate students from five faculties at Jazan University. All participants completed an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire, which included questions about their sociodemographic details and a measuring scale of general psychological distress, the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18). Results: A total of 450 students satisfactorily completed the questionnaire. Of these, 139 (30.9%) were screened positive for psychological distress based on the BSI-18 scale. Females scored significantly higher than males on the somatization ( P = 0.002) and anxiety subscales ( P = 0.006) as well as on the total symptom scale (the General Severity Index; P = 0.005). However, there was no significant difference between males and females regarding the depression subscale ( P = 0.149). Twenty-eight students (6.2%) reported moderate to extreme levels of distress due to suicidal thoughts in the past 1 week before inclusion in this study. Conclusions: This study found that ~31% of undergraduate students at Jazan University are psychologically distressed. This finding necessitates the need for rigorous efforts to develop proper screening and intervention programs targeting this population.
RamziMohammed Hakami (Mon,) studied this question.